Sri Sita Ramachandra Swamy

History

Sree Seetha Ramchandra Swamy temple a sacred place that attracts lakhs of devotees from all over the world, is the most famous temple in the country located at left bank of the godhavari river dedicated to Lord Rama was constructed in 17th century by a devotee of Lord Sree Rama a local Tahsildar, Kancharla Gopanna popularly known as Bhakta Ramadas.
History: Lord Rama long after shedding his mortal coils manifested himself to save his devotee Bhadra Maharshi whom he promised 'moksha' after intensive prayer. The village is named as Bhadradri or Bhadrachalam after Bhadra Maharshi. According to history the significance of this temple takes back to the Ramayana Era. This coherent hill place existed in "Dandakaranya" Of Ramayana period where Rama with his wife Sita and brother Laxmana spent their vanavasa and Parnashaala is also present in the locality of this temple site. The history says that the incarnation of Vykuntha Rama was to fulfill a long desire of his devotee Bhadra. Bhadra Maharshi performed penance at the bank of river Godavari in " Dandakaranya " to get grace of his beloved god lord Rama. The "Rishi" implored Rama to be seated on his head ,but Rama who was in search of his wife Sita gave promise that his desire would be fulfilled on his way back , after finding Sita and accomplishing the process of punishing the wicked Ravana and establish 'Dharma' . Thus the sage had been in continuation of the frightened penance as Rama could not accomplish the promise in Ramavatara . Then Sri Mahavishnu manifested himself as Vykuntha Rama and rushed to his devotee Bhadra , signaling hisarrival by blowing 'Shanku',accompanied by his wife Sita and brother Laxmana , resembling of 'Gajendra Moksham '. Thus, the moorthies of Rama ( having four hands ) - Shanku on the right , Chakra at his left and Dhanurbhana ( Bow and Arrow in the rest two hands ) , Sita had condescended on the left lap of Rama and brother ( at Rama's left ) are existed . And the hill place where the Deities were seated on , was the head place of Bhadra - achalam ( hill ) ,thus this shrine was transformed into Bhadrachalam. The origin of the present temple is when, the idols of Vykuntha Rama, Laxmana and Sita were found by Pokala Dhammakka, a devotee of Rama lived in the 17th century and was an inhabitant of Bhadrireddypalem, a mile away from this holy place. On one fine night, she had darshan of Rama in her dream who said "the saints and sages are worshiping my embodied moorthy settled on Bhadragiri" and asked her to trace them, perform pooja and attain salvation. On the very next day morning she started searching for the idols-peeped into an ant-hill and found the idols hidden in it. She poured hundreds of pots of Godavari water on the ant-hill which tardily dissolved and gave way for the appearance of the hidden Deities. Since then, she used to perform pooja daily and offer 'naivedyam` with fruits fallen from near palmyra tree and constructed a mandapam of thatch hut with the help of local villagers. Bhagawan Rama told Dhammakka that at a later date, one of his devotees would construct a Mandir at this site. Dhammakka waited patiently for the devotee, the devotee turned out to be Bhakta Ramadas. Ramadasa, who was appointed as tahsildar of 'Palvoncha Paragana' at Golconda heard the news that the villagers of palvoncha paragana were proceeding to witness a Jatara at Bhadrachalam, became curios and visited Bhadrachalam. He found the deities in an amazing appearance. Ramadas, then asked the villagers to contribute some generous amount for the construction of the temple. After the contributions were found to be insufficient, the villagers appealed him to spend the revenue collections for the construction of the temple with a promise to repay the amount after harvesting the crops. Accordingly, Ramadas constructed the temple with an amount of Rs 6 Lakhs collected from the land revenues with out the permission of the Nizam Nawab.When the temple reached to the nearing completion, he had a problem of fixing 'Sudarshana Chakra' at the crest of the main temple. He was deeply distressed and fell into sleep. On the same night, Rama appeared in his dream asked him to have a holy dip in river Godavari where he will find the Sudarshana Chakra. On the next day morning Gopanna did so and found holy Sudarshana Chakra in the river with out much difficulty. He presumed that Sudarshana Chakra itself was shaped up with the divine power of his beloved God Rama. Soon after the construction, he was dismissed from service for mis-utilisation of revenue for constructing the temple and was kept in jail for 12 long years in Golkonda Fort and was tortured. Unable to withstand the miseries, Ramadas implored Rama to relieve him by singing many prayers which got popularized from the stanzas of 'Dasaradhi Sathakam' and 'Keertanas' of Bhakta Ramadasa.The Nizam Nawab Tanishah, the then ruler of Nizam's territory became a devotee of Rama who realised the devotion spirit of Ramadas after his imprisonment and took over the charge of temple administration. The Nizam Nawab realised Ramadas'devotional spirit and dedication towards Rama, when Rama and Laxmana repaid 6 lakh Mohurs exposing themselves as Ramoji and Laxmoji, the servants of Bhakta Ramadas to get release of their devotee from the imprisonment. Thanisha gave voucher to these divine looking persons who approached him at his house during late night. Then they kept the voucher under the pillow of Gopanna where he was jailed. Tanishah who woke up on the very next day morning realised that those divine looking persons were none other than Rama and Laxmana and made arrangements to get release of Gopanna and asked to forgive him by placing all the Gold Mohurs received last night at the feet of Gopanna. But, he refused to take back those mohurs except two as a mark of divine significance. After releasing from the prison ramsad performed Nitya Poojas from early morning till night called "suprabhata Seva" and "Pavalimpu Seva". Tumu Narsimha Dasa and Varada Ramadasa who are from Guntur took over the charge of Bhadrachalarama. There are two major festivals celebrated every year in bhadrachalam which are "Vykunta Ekadasi" and "Sri Rama Navami Brahmotsavams" the Vykunta Ekadasi which is celebrated in months of either December or January in 'Dhanur Masam' on the day of Pushya or Margasira Shuddha Ekadasi. On this auspicious Vykuntha Ekadasi day on the early hours exactly at 5 am Vykuntha dwarams at Northern Gate will be open for darshan to devotees. On Dasami day, a ten day festival called Adhyayanotsavams and Dasavatara Mahotsavams(10 incarnations) of Sri Maha Vishnu are preceded to Vykuntha Ekadasi Fete. The deities of Rama and his wife Sita will be taken into rounds on the holi river Godavari on a well decorated "Hamsavahana". The Sri Rama Navami Brahmotsavams which is anothe major festival is celebrated on every 'Chaitra shuddha navami ' -'Janma Nakshatra' (birth star), of Lord Sri Rama. At the last week of March or first week of April SitaRama Kalyanamahotsavam will be held 10 am and 12.30 pm and the sacred Talambralu showered on the deities exactly at 12 noon. This Sri Rama Navami Festival occassion will be broadcasted by All India Radio and telecast through Doordarshan on the festive day from 10 AM to 12 Noon. The visiting place of this temple are the picturesque display of some scenes of vanavasa could be seen at Parnashala. One can see the foot prints of Sita devi, Mosaic of Maarecha in the guise of golden deer and Ravana in the guise of Sanyasi for Bhikshatana. Also found in the vicinity are Sita Vaagu-where she had bathed and collected the turmeric and Kunkum from near by stones and the marks of her saree on the rock near Sita Vaagu. As Ravana kidnapped Sita, the deity at Parnashala is called Sokarama.
Timings: The day of the temple begins with "Prabhadhotsavam" at 4.30 AM.
Abhishekam will be performed at 7.00 AM.
On Sundays and all the remaining days abhishekams will be performed at Badruni Sannithi on the same time.
All saswatha pujas are for a period of 10 years only.

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